The expanding company has its own philosophy on catering to an underserved rental market: keep it stress-free When 26-year-old Christian Jenkins, a creative strategist at Manhattan-based Vox Media, decided to move to Brooklyn a little less than two years ago, he wanted affordable rent, community, and stress-free living. Normally, that?s a formula for disappointment in a high-priced, high-demand neighborhood, especially if you need to find roommates. But Jenkins decided to try Common, one of a growing number of companies promoting coliving, where tenants pay for a bedroom, shared common space, and the promise of community.
After 18 months of staying at a four-story, Common-managed building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he shares a suite with four other roommates, Jenkins believes he?s found what he was seeking. His floor?which, when I visited last week, had the trappings of apartment-dwelling young professionals, including an ironing board in the living room, a roommate eating a dinner on the couch in front of a flatscreen TV, and a Sonos speaker in constant rotation?seemed like a standard, if well put-together, living space. Fully furnished by Common with furniture, basic supplies, and a few unobtrusive framed photos, the two-bathroom, five-bedroom suite seemed homey. Jenkins, who pays $1,545 a month for his 13x15 room, says that those who look at coliving as something akin to a frat house or an adult dorm room don?t understand the value of the community engagem...